Children from the Wielbark Culture Site in Cecele
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Archaeologia Polona, vol. 51–52 : 2013–2014 (2016), 21 – 42 PL ISSN 0066 - 5924 Who are you child? Children from the Wielbark culture site in Cecele Marta Chmiel-Chrzanowskaa Identity is one of the most important elements of human functioning in society, but we relatively seldom discuss it directly in archaeological research. It is obvious that each society has its own pattern for burying people. Material culture enables to broadcast the attributes which are a manifestation of the multiplicity of identities. Some codes of them are readable only for certain groups. The main aim of this article is to identify the traces of children in the funeral rites at the example of the Wielbark cemetery in Cecele and to reflect on the external identity given by society to children in different age categories. For this purpose a full statistical analysis was conducted the results of which became the starting point for an interpretation of the cultural background. KEY-WORDS: Roman Period, Wielbark culture, childhood, burial rites INTRODUCTION: ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD – AGE, DEATH AND IDENTITY This article concerns children form the Wielbark site in Cecele. I tried, on the one hand, to consider children from different age groups in the context of culture mani- festations, and on the other hand, to rethink the identity given by the society to these categories. Identity is one of the most important aspects of human functioning in society, but it is relatively seldom discussed by the archaeologists. It is obvious that each society has its’ own patterns of defining people. Each category of people has their attributes. In E. Goffman’s opinion (2005: 31–32), even the first contact with a person leads us to establish the characteristic of him or her. On this basis we can ‘read’ the social identity of a specific person. Material culture enables to ascribe attributes to recognize possible multiplicity of identities. Some of these codes are readable only for certain groups (see Sørensen 1997: 93–94). Even greater difficulties may be posed when it comes to so-called ‘funeral filter’. Besides the difficulties in understanding sometimes very a Chair of Archaeology, University of Szczecin, 71-79 Krakowska St., 71-003 Szczecin, Poland; marta. [email protected] 22 | Marta Chmiel-Chrzanowska complicated divisions ruling each society, we need to take into account the problems which arise from the necessity to understand the eschatological concept realized by the community. The identity of every individual has to be considered on two different levels, in the external dimension: ‘who is he?’, and the internal one: ‘who am I?’. The internal and external aspect of identity need not necessarily be equivalent. The external identity is the result of broadcasting certain characteristics by the society. The internal identity is a result of self-creation, self-reflection and experience. Another issue is the relation between the external and internal identity, how they complement each other and how much they remain in conflict (Melchior 1990: 389–391). In the course of personal development an individual starts to create their own identity, but the others are a point of reference for it. This allows to set individual limits of their own ’I’. Articulation of a person’s own norms and values seems to be real only in juxtaposition with the others’ standards (Nowicka 1990: 18). In archaeological research also the perception of age and gender categories becomes problematic. Social archaeology involves examining the ways in which the past com- munities were organised in connection with the archaeological data (Chapman 2000: 24). The biological perspective of viewing age and sex is not sufficient. It becomes necessary to take into account also their cultural aspect. Age and sex have, besides the biological dimension, also a symbolical and ideological meaning, different at the sub- sequent stages of human life. Periodical division of human life entails complicated social divisions, which have a direct impact on the outer and inner identity of man. From the point of view of my research, the most important will be the chronological age, which is determined by the community in connection with the concept of linear time realized by society. Chronological age is closely related to physiological age, but does not coincide with it in 100%. It depends on the conditions in which the man is functioning (cf. Sofaer Derevenski 1994: 11; Halcrow and Tayles 2008: 192; Wolański 2012: 446–453). Often boundary/transition moments in a particular culture are associated with specific events in human life, not necessarily completely dependent on the threshold of physiological development. Through the rites of passage man can be ‘born’ again, change his/her social status, gain knowledge and experience. They allow him/her to take a specific place in the community. In such a situation society creates the individual in such a way as to realize their ideal image of man (cf. Buliński 2002: 87, 89). The identity of the individual has been described by a network of relationships in the society that have been constructed in different ways, at different stages of life. Social position of the individual will not only depend on the material or the unique individ- ual characteristics, but primarily is related to the age and gender, which give it its fundamental importance. Because of that, forms and ways of constructing rules through which the separate social categories are created, should be taken into Who are you child? Children from the Wielbark culture site in Cecele | 23 consideration (cf. Czarnecka 1990; Sofaer Derevenski 1997; Kamp 2001; Pawleta 2005; Błaszczyk 2010). Additionally research of the past communities is marked by the actualism. Auto- matically, involuntarily we move our modern standards onto the past reality. When we think about the child, we bring about modern ideas, linking them with the inno- cence, childhood as time of joy, fun and learning. Of course, this is a mistake, as it is evidenced by the archaeological, historical and ethnological research. The experience of childhood and its creation is differential in time and space. Therefore, it becomes necessary to go beyond the current understanding of the age and gender categories (cf. e.g. Lillehammer 2000; Baxter 2005; Pawleta 2009). During the discussion on the identity of the past communities, based on the funeral sources, we have to bear in mind that the living bury the dead. As the result, what we see in the burials must have been given and created for the deceased. On the other hand, the approach to the burial as a dataset is also important. It is more significantly the symbolic mark, processed by archaeological interpretation than a direct image of the social position of the deceased. Therefore, the perception of the death pattern becomes very important for the researcher’s point of view (Woźny 2002: 45). During the research on cemeteries we are dealing with a filter in which all the information about the past life of the community is included. We should bear in mind the fact that in people’s imagination a corpse need not be completely dead, it may be more than the flesh from which humanity flies away. In many cultures, people talk with the deceased, watch him, sometimes even feed1. That kind of approach to corpses forces very specific behaviours associated with the ways of burying the dead, however, they are dependent on the position in the social group and external identity (cf. Thomas 2001: 31–32). Research on child and childhood are more popular now than few years ago, also in Polish archaeology (e.g. Pawleta 2004a; 2004b; 2004c; 2005; 2009; Chmiel 2011; 2013; 2014; Romanowicz 2013; Skóra 2013). However, in western literature often appears allegation that the archaeological children ‘have been used’ in the research, in order to understand the functioning of adults in society. In other words, archaeology has been focusing on the children but hasn’t considered them as fully fledged individuals in the society. The material culture of children should be analysed in connection with the material culture of adults. The archaeologists engaged in research on children postulated to include into archaeological narration the child as an active individual, focusing on the construction of the child, explaining what it means to be a child in different cultures (e.g. Sofaer Deverenski 1997; 2000; Lillehammer 2000; Baxter 2000; 2005; 2008; 1 Till today the Gypsies are convinced that people are only sleeping and the real death takes place when body begins to decompose. 24 | Marta Chmiel-Chrzanowska Chmiel 2011; 2013). Of course, in most cases, the possibilities are very limited, however, it is not impossible. In the case of those specific aspects such as different categories of age or life cycles, it is necessary to consider almost all the variables for each grave. An omission of one or two variables, such as the depth of the pits, distorts the eventual result of the analysis (Pearson 1999; Lenartowski 2001). CHILDREN FROM CECELE The site The site in Cecele (Fig. 1) is one of the most famous Wielbark culture cemeteries. It was discovered in 1965 and the regular excavations were carried out until 1970 by Fig. 1. Location of the site at Cecele Who are you child? Children from the Wielbark culture site in Cecele | 25 Jan Jaskanis. For a few years articles presenting various stages of excavations at the cemetery were published (Jaskanis 1968; 1971; 1972; 1974). The final publication was the site monograph, Ein Gräberfeld der Wielbark-Kultur in Ost Polen (Jaskanis 1996), which was released in 1995. The features of this cemetery reflect the changes that took place in the Wielbark culture in the younger Roman Period so well that the name of the site is used to describe the younger phase of the Wielbark culture (the Cecele Phase).